Big Goals, Big Win, Playoffs Clear as Mud

OK, so the Rampage dumped a team record 52 shots on former Rampage goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris, tied the game with 57 seconds left in regulation and win it in overtime. Ho-hum…

Actually, it was super game at the AT&T Center on Wednesday night, not just because of the Rampage heroics, but for the first time in half a decade, there was a playoff atmosphere at a San Antonio hockey game and the game itself had an amazing playoff intensity we just haven’t seen in the past five years.

Usually, we’ve been treated to “lackluster, playing out the string, get the golf clubs polished hockey” during this time of year. But the Rampage are springing to life as the West Division gets tighter and tighter.

After the 3-2 S.A. win, I had a chance to sit down with Joey Tenute, who scored the game winner and Jon DiSalvatore, who scored the other two goals.

TENUTE’S BEEN TIGHT

For Tenute, the game winner was poetic justice, as he’s struggled with only two goals in his last 19 games. At one time during the season in January, Tenute was the team’s leading scorer and played in the AHL All-Star Game. But since mid-February, the former Calder Cupper with Hershey has been clanging posts, shooting into goalie pads or over and around nets.

“Sometimes you go through a season where you’re hot and cold. It’s been a tough stretch for me personally but it’s all about team success. I’ve been working hard in practice trying to get back on track and it feels good to help contribute to the team,” said Tenute.

Tenute mentioned that it was nice to see the Rampage get a good bounce from the puck for a change.

“It seems like this year we’ve been on the other end of those, the other team getting that extra bounce. We were due. Tonight we got that. It was one of those goals, where maybe the pretty ones aren’t going in so we got rewarded with one like that. It was just perseverance by our team. When we play like that it’s a feeling like we’re going to get rewarded and you know you’re going to win. We felt good about our team tonight and we played better as the game went on,” said the former New Jersey Devils draft pick.

DISALVATORE KNOWS DI-GAME

Now if there’s a more humble player on this year’s Rampage team than Jon DiSalvatore, then I’d like to meet him. Actually, most of the San Antonio players are self-effacing, but the former Peoria Riverman who persecuted the Rampage in past seasons, is adept at deflecting praise.

On Wednesday night, his two goals were scored on bad hops and weird bounces, but he’ll take them any way he can.

On the game-tying goal, with less than a minute to play and the Rampage having the extra skater DiSalvatore said:

“The idea is that in the last minute you just have to throw as many pucks to the net as you can. He got a little sore there, he started cramping up. Not that I placed the shot, but I knew he was having a hard time going down, so just throw it low and see what happens. And I got lucky to score from a bad angle. Just you just have to throw pucks at the net sometimes and see what happens.”

The shot came from the right wing boards, about faceoff dot high, at about a 20 degree angle from the goal line.

The Rampage you may recall had their four-game losing streak while the Bangor, Maine right winger was sidelined with an injury, his second stint of the season on the scratch list. But does DiSalvatore take the chance to zap teammates about the scoring drought and poor results?

“When I sat those games out, I thought the guys were playing great. When we got to Springfield, Manitoba and Chicago the guys were playing good hockey at that time. Even though we weren’t winning the games at that point, we were making the transition, playing playoff-style hockey. I come back and I just try to not stop the momentum in that direction. So their credit they’ve been playing great hockey and I’m just glad I can jump back in help anyway I can.”

Like scoring a game-tying goal with 57 seconds left in regulation. Another thing about this guy, San Jose’s second pick in the fourth round of the 2000 draft is his consistency. When he signed with S.A., I looked up his numbers. Check these out!

2003-04 Cleveland Barons AHL 22 goals

2004-05 Worcester IceCats AHL 22 goals

2005-06 Peoria Rivermen AHL 22 goals

2006-07 Peoria Rivermen AHL 21 goals

2007-08 San Antonio AHL 20 goals (seven games left)

Amazing consistency for the guy who played collegiate hockey at Providence.

“It’s good to have consistent numbers. It shows teams can count on you for certain things. I don’t put up a huge amount of goals but I like to contribute, be a guy you can count on. It feels good to get 20 and I hope that I can put a few more in and get a few more “W’s” for these guys.”

COACH’S THOUGHTS ON AN AMAZING NIGHT

Greg Ireland had some nice quotes I couldn’t fit into the paper’s story. We were talking last week about the team having to score “ugly” goals in order to get out of the scoring slump they were in… Wednesday’s game was Exhibit A.

“It’s playoff time. We’ve been talking since September about scoring playoff goals, ugly goals greasy goals because as we get down to the final days, time and space on the ice are limited. You’re not going to get chances to make those crafty, slick, fancy plays. What you’re gonna get is ‘boom’ get a chance, hit a butt, hit a head, hit a skate, find a way to get in.”

The win over Milwaukee was the first game of a four-games-in-five nights stretch, including three of those games against the Admirals.

“You don’t want to let points get away from you. We were playing a good game, we were getting shots, 52 shots at the goaltender down there, we were skating and you don’t want to let that get away, that opportunity because you never know what’s around the corner.”

MILWAUKEE GETS IT’S FILL OF TEXAS TEAMS

What’s around the corner is another date with Milwaukee on Friday night, Saturday night in Rockford and Sunday up in Milwaukee. Then, next week, it’s Tuesday night in Iowa against non-playoff Iowa, but then comes three-in-three again at Peoria and two at home against Quad Cities.

In other words, this stretch against the Admirals and IceHogs will tell us a lot about the playoff aspirations of Ireland’s boys. Right now, Rockford has 90 points, the Rampage, Houston and Milwaukee each have 88 points, although Houston has a game in hand, but is on the road for the next six. The Admirals have Houston Saturday night, followed by the Rampage Sunday and three straight against the Aeros the last weekend of the season.

Rampage fans can only hope Dov Grumet-Morris has another 49-save performances under his suspenders next week in Wisconsin and the Toyota Center.